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Sometimes, simply paying attention can stop a much bigger problem before it gets out of hand.

One grocery store employee found that out while helping near the front of the store during a quiet moment.

She noticed a woman slowly pushing a very full cart toward the exit and started keeping an eye on her.

At first, nothing seemed too unusual, but then the woman actually started heading out the door without stopping to pay.

The employee stepped in and asked for a receipt, which quickly changed the customer’s plans.

Read on to see what management did next.

Stopped a “Walk-Out” today, my manager’s reaction surprised me.

I work at a big chain grocery store in the southeastern United States (no, not the one with the awesome subs).

I usually work the desk or self-checkout. Now, both these positions place me right by an entrance/exit, each at an opposite side of the front end.

Since our LP goes as far as my manager following sketchy people or known thieves around, the front-end employees (desk, self-checkout, cashiers, bagger) are a big part of alerting them to any concerns, although we’re not expected to approach the customer crooks ourselves.

As she helped at register one, she noticed a woman walking toward the front door.

Well, today was a bit of a different story.

The service desk is right across the aisle from register 1, and there’s an exit if you walk between these two.

I had no customers at the desk, so I was helping at register 1, just bagging and chatting with the customer, when I see a VERY full cart (with no bags) pushed by a woman go slowly past. I look over, and she looks like she’s heading straight for the door.

Now, in the case that a person tries to “walk out” with a cart full of groceries (sans payment), we’re supposed to offer to ring them up, at which point they’ll mysteriously change their mind, not need any of this stuff, and leave.

At this point, she approached the customer.

I don’t do this quite yet, as she’s on the phone and I figure she’s just trying to get better reception. Happens a lot because service is bad in the store. But I keep my eye on her and glance at her every few seconds.

I look over my shoulder for her, and lo and behold, she’s halfway out the door! I dart over, and this predictable conversation ensues.

Me: Good afternoon, have you checked out already?

Customer Crook: Oh, yeah, yeah.

When she asked for a receipt, the woman couldn’t produce it.

Me: May I please see your receipt?

C: Oh, sure, sure, it’s right here. Oh, no, you know what? I gave it to my friend. She’s pulling the car around so we can load this all up. I’ll bring it in to you when she gets here.

Me: Oh, you know what? Why don’t you just wait here inside so you don’t get wet! There’s even a little bench to sit on. Which register did you go through? I can just check with them. I start pushing the cart in for her.

C: Oh…okay. I just checked out down there. I’ll just wait for my friend. They’ll bring you the receipt.

After the woman left, the employee let management know what happened.

She starts browsing around, and I keep working but keeping my eye on her. She makes her way to the other end of the store and quietly goes out the other door empty-handed.

So, I push the cart to the go-back section that has a couple of employees stationed by it and let them know what happened and to keep an eye on it until it gets put back, just in case she comes back.

I go let my manager know, but I don’t think it’s much of a big deal because this happens at least twice a month.

He looks concerned, asks who stopped her, and looks puzzled when I tell him it was me.

Suddenly, a manager came over to talk to the employee.

Next thing I know, my supervisor and all 3 of the managers in the store that day are walking into the security room.

A few minutes later, one comes out and gives me this speech:

“Yeah, she didn’t check out and definitely almost got away with that. I looked in the cart. It’s almost $1,000 worth of stuff (!!!). You really didn’t have to do that, but we appreciate it so much. You did everything right. We all know what she looks like and will keep an eye out for her. Here, this is for you. It’s a $10 gift card. I know it’s not much, but we just wanted to say thank you and let you know how much we appreciate what you did.”

Wow! The gift card wasn’t much, but at least they showed their appreciation.

Let’s check if the readers over at Reddit have ever dealt with anything similar.

Here’s someone who loves seeing stories like this.

Where this person works, someone got in trouble for trying to stop a thief.

According to this reader, their job pays them for stopping thieves.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a restaurant employee who decided to put the staff over customers despite the official policy.

This sounds so crazy.

This employee deserves a lot of credit.

She could’ve ignored the situation, but something didn’t feel right and she trusted that feeling.

Finding out the cart held nearly $1,000 worth of groceries probably made the whole thing even more surprising.

And while the $10 gift card wasn’t much, at least management recognized that she had saved the store a lot of money.